1 & The Same

Everybody always telling me to get mine
But money ain't nothing
Compared to an artist's mind
I was told
Money always pays the bills
That you gone need it all the time
That dreams needed to be shelved
When you're working for them
Nine to fives

As a kid
You're told you can do anything
With your mind
From writing books
To making movies
Writing a rhyme
But as I got older
That theory changed over time

Cause people don't support
Inhibitors of the mind
That refuse to draw the line
When they're being undermined

An average person spends seven hundred eighty hours of they life
Doing something they don't even like
Instead of living they life
I see why Johnny don't like to go to school anymore
Cause school is way too expensive
For a degree
That could make you even more poor

And even if we did go
We still fucked either way
Because a nine to five ain't ever willing to pay
Your goal is the money
But for the work
You're a slave
Underneath of a modern day master
So as to say

The clock moves slower
But your life is slipping a way
Instead of feeling like years
Your life is shortened to days
Before you know it
Your child's born
Next
They're moving away
Before you know it again
Your grandchild's on the way
Telling you bluntly
Is the simplest way

They don't give a fuck about the side that you claim
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

We only chess pieces
That they play in this game
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

If you settling for less nigga
Go be ashamed
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

If they stamp you with a number man
Instead of your name
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

See
My boy said that he gave up music for good
Honestly
Free styling is what he did
Really good
Yeah

He said he wanted a real job
And to get out the hood
So he let go of his passion
Discrediting everything
He formerly knew
In which he had stood

My mama always told me that I would do fine
But doing fine wasn't enough to ease up my mind
A perfectionist
Always adds the 'T' to the time

Ain't because I'm arrogant
I'm just OCD
When I'm writing up my rhymes
All the time
While my niggas hustling
For every little nickel and dime
Watching me shine
While I'm motherfucking out here
Making the climb

I been this way homie, man
For almost two years
Writing y'all a storyline
Man
Full of my fears
I see my future in distance
And it's finally clear
This is my persistence
And it's gotten me here
(Kick it)

They give a fuck about the side that you claim
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

We only chess pieces
That they play in this game
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

If you settling for less nigga
Go be ashamed
Everybody in the motherfucker
One and the same

If they stamp you with a number man
Instead of your name
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

Two Sundays in a row
My mama's feelings had changed
When I took her out to church
And she doubted my game
Placing bad vibes in my ear
Let alone
On my name
Placing blame
Indian-giving own her claim
Dissing my gain
Everything she recently acclaimed
About me being who I am
And wanting more than the fame
About me being myself
Not just one in the same
About me being myself
In nobody else's lane

You send me peace and blessings
Saying God is sending signs
Say I'll the need money honey
When I'm slapped with a fine
How you always told me
I could do it if I tried?
But
As I got older
Told me art
Wouldn't make a dime?

How you go to church
Come back
And support?
Believe that a prayer works
But fall short?
I understand
You had your problems at my age
Drinking and partying
During your collegiate days
But that doesn't I'll mean I'll follow in your footsteps
And masquerade
Doesn't mean I'll do the same wrong thing
And follow your ways

Cause I been told several times
I'd never go anywhere
Making stories into rhymes
Off the top of hair
Cause I been told several times
I'd never do anything
Thinking that I could do better than fair
(All the time)
Cause I been told several times
I need a real job
To support my family
And provide them health care

But my mind is too competitive
For simplest of pay
Too complex
For the cycle of the simplest of ways
Too opened-minded
To repeat
My predecessors as maids
Too liberal for crooked crackers
Dressed as Curtis Blow
In black face

See my boy Kyle said that shit at his best
He said that shit senior year
As he sat his desk
He told a nigga
We all could do a little bit more
Than just sitting in a cubicle
Or college room dorm

He said he'd rather do something bigger than life
Than grind for a nine to five
Man
Work it and die
I always listened to everything that
Kyle told me
Cause if settled for less
I'd would've never been me
Yeah

They don't give a fuck about the side that you claim
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

We only chess pieces
That they play in this game
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

If you settling for less nigga
Go be ashamed
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

If they stamp you with a number man
Instead of your name
Everybody in this motherfucker
One and the same

Yeah